Thursday, May 31, 2007

TV Shows on DVD has an update on the first Legion animated show DVD, a little more than we knew last week. In addition to the first four episodes broadcast (not the first four in alleged production order) and a 10-minute Paul Levitz interview, the press release also notes that

Legion of Super Heroes will be supported by an online media campaign, as well as added awareness due to the Legion of Super Heroes action figures being included in McDonald's Happy Meals in August. The DVD release of Legion of Super Heroes will be supported by a Superman/Justice League/Super Friends catalog promotion during August 13th – October 19th, 2007.

I note that the promotion start time coincides nicely with the start of Klordny Week.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

This is another post that I should have (would have) posted last Friday had I not been preparing for my vacation.

My first Legion issue was Superboy 212, which was on the stands in July 1975. I was almost 9 years old. It wasn't too long after that it became my favorite book, the one I looked forward to the most each month (even in the skip months).

On May 16, 1977, the final issue of Superboy came out (according to Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics) - the next issue was the "giant-sized" issue 231 of Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes. Too bad the cool Mike Grell cover was better than the story inside. Jim Sherman turned out to be a pretty good penciller, but I never liked Jack Abel's inks, they always tended to dominate whoever did the pencils. It also had the story of how Bouncing Boy gained his powers back (with much better pencils by Mike Nasser).

That was on a Monday. A week later, all anyone could talk about was this movie with lots of great advance buzz called "Star Wars" that was opening on Wednesday, May 25.

I didn't get to see it until Saturday. By that time people were trying to see it a second time or even third time. The lines famously stretched around the block. At the Menlo Park Cinema in Edison NJ where I grew up, the line wrapped more than once around the theater. I was almost 11 years old, and I went with my 8 year old sister to see an early afternoon show. It was sold out, so we bought tickets for the next one, which was a dinnertime show and walked back home. My dad was upset at us for buying those tickets, since that meant we'd have to eat dinner much earlier than we usually did. But we did, and we went to the movie. We had to sit all the way up the balcony to find a spot where my sister could see.

I was blown away by the opening scene and stayed there the whole movie. (My sister, who was so impressed that she still hasn't seen the movie since then.)

I managed to see Empire and Jedi on opening day, and I even did all three prequels at the midnight show.

I think that even at such an early age, that movie changed my life. I had been enthralled by the Skylab astronauts in 1973-74 and the Apollo-Soyuz hook-up in 1975 (I even built the Revell model for that one!), and I had just discovered Star Trek reruns. I thought that movie was so cool that I decided I wanted to be an astronaut (whereas my friend Mark Bernard decided he wanted to go to film school to make movies like that). I never made it there (Mark never did either), but that set in motion a chain of events that brought me to where I am today.

Has it really been 30 years since the movie came out? The 2-screen movie theater has been long since torn down, replaced with a Macaroni Grill restaurant. The 7-11 where I bought my comics, though, is still there, but they don't have a spinner rack any more. But nothing can match the wonder of that 11-year-old mind, though. And adding special effects and making Greedo shoot first doesn't change that.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Grife. This is what I was going to post last Friday before I left, but of course I forgot.

On vacation - not in Atlantis, like these guys, but Cancun. I do expect to be under water, but I doubt I'll see mermaids (though it would be nice to see triplets!). Don't expect to hear from me until next week. Have fun this holiday weekend... I know I will!

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Newsarama's got a preview of next week's JSA #6. Holy shamoley! Listen to what Superman says:

Time travel was never easy on us. Once in a while memories would be altered or even erased. One of the Legion's most historical adventures remains undocumented because none of us could recall the exact circumstances behind it. The archives called it "The Legion of Three Worlds" ....

Hmmm. The pre-Crisis version, the post-Zero Hour version, and the current version?

It appears this Legion may very well be the pre-Crisis Legion.

The last time I saw them was right before the first Crisis. They never came back. And I never understood why.

Well that's because you were retconned out, ya big goofball! The text references Adventure 312 and the resurrection of Lightning Lad. Then Karate Kid says:

If [Saturn Girl] knew what we were attempting to do, she'd be here along with Cosmic Boy and Lightning Lad. They risked their lives to save me, but now more than ever -- the Legion needs their big three.

So... Lightning Lad isn't the 7th person in the 21st century they're looking for. As had been surmised, his name was the code word for the plan to apparently resurrect someone at the cost of one of their own.

No, it's not a look back at the v4 era. "Tales of the Great Disaster" was one of a number of sporadic backup series that appeared in the 70s that dealt with the Great Disaster that brought forth the world of Kamandi and the Atomic Knights. DC announced a Showcase volume coming out in November that collects all of these backup stories (to tie in with the Great Disaster we're going to hear about from Countdown), one of which is the Superman story I wrote about here. Superman 295 features the Time Trapper trying to wipe out all possible futures that would result in the Legion, and Superman gets stuck in the future of the Great Disaster timeline. With the help of the Green Lantern named Xenofobe, Superman restores the timelines.

The First Issue Special is Jack Kirby's Atlas which I'm not familiar with (and that link doesn't shed any light on how it would be related). Hercules (which reveals how World War III started in 1986) ties in with the Atomic Knights from Strange Adventures, DCCP has Superman and the Atomic Knight (which retconned the Knights into being a simulation running in Gardner Grayle's mind), the Kamandi stories are "Tales of the Great Disaster", and the war/mystery books are "The Day After Doomsday" short stories (which I'm not familiar with either). The last one, from AWODCC, is an article written for that magazine which tries to put together a coherent history of the Great Disaster circa late 1970s.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

IGN has the press release with more info on the Legion vol. 1 DVD. Mostly as expected, the first four episodes aired will be on the disc ("Man of Tomorrow", "Timber Wolf", "Legacy", and "Phantoms").

The nifty special features include this featurette:

We Are Legion -- The Legionnaires from the pages of DC Comics are back, this time in animated form. Looking at the rich history of storylines, characters, and classic team driven tales of action and adventure, the Legion of Super Heroes: Volume 1 is updated for today¹s audience. Featuring an interview with Paul Levitz, President & Publisher of DC Comics, and former writer on the Legion of Super Heroes comic book.

Interestingly, the fourth episode on the disc is the fourth episode aired, not the fourth episode in terms of the original list we were given to understand was the production order.

CBR has an interview with Paul Dini, head writer for Countdown. We know that Karate Kid (as seen in the JLA/JSA teamup) will remain in the 21st century for some reason, for some period of time. Here's a quote from the interview, with my emphasis added to the last sentence:

CBR: Now, could "Countdown" be characterized as four monthly books all under the banner headline "Countdown." Is that really accurate? Will each team be handling their own piece of the story, or is it less that and more a collaborative, everybody works on everything experience?

Dini: You know, we're all working on every story together. We do have these six of seven major characters or major story beats running through each month. Not every story beat will be in every issue - a few of them will be - but occasionally we find ourselves saying, "You know what? We left Jimmy on a cliff-hanger, so we can take an issue off and let's concentrate on the Karate Kid or Mary Marvel or Holly Robinson," all of whom are key players in "Countdown." With Holly we get an entry into the Amazon's world. With Karate Kid we get a little bit more of the riddle of the great disaster and we have a connection to the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Now, that by itself wouldn't really merit a post here, but then they show a page from Countdown #50 (the second issue) where Karate Kid fights Batman. The caption under the page:

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Every now and then, between my review recaps, my animated news briefings, and my trivia contests, I try to provide some original content. Here's something I've been working on for the last few months off and on: sales figures for the regular Legion books going all the way back to 1960 when the Legion took over the lead spot in Adventure Comics. I just wanted to see what it looks like. (Previously: Sales 1996-2007 and just the current title. Relatedly: Superman and Batman vs Marvel in the 1980s at Captain Custard)

(In the works: overlaying this data with some other DC titles like Superman and Batman as a check, and to see if the Legion really was one of the top titles in the 1980s like we've always heard.)

This chart combines all the titles that the Legion was in since 1960, either as regular stars, regular backups, or semi-regular backups. At this point I don't have pre- or post-Legion data for Action Comics, or pre-Legion stuff for Superboy. That's for another day. The plot does not include any spin-offs, side projects, or miniseries except for Legion Lost and Legion Worlds which, although miniseries, were really the main Legion title at the time. To help, I put the writer and/or the creative team along the bottom.

So here's the chart. Things look bleak, huh? Well, if you look at it from pure numbers, sure, but you can't really do that since the market is different now than in decades past. You can only look at trends (which I discuss below the plot). Click to enlarge the plot.

The analysis:

For the Legion, sales peaked in 1965 and have gone downward since. It doesn't look like sales were affected by the huge spike that Batman got in the late 60s due to the TV show.

Look at the early 70s. With "old school" writers and artists like E. Nelson Bridwell and Win Mortimer, they lost 80,000 readers from 1971-72, then another 50,000 from 1972-73. But then something funny happened - the "new school" writers and artists came on board, like Cary Bates, Dave Cockrum, Mike Grell, and a reinvented Jim Shooter. Sales went up in 1974 when Bates and Cockrum came in, and stayed up through 1976. Either the departure of Grell in early 1977 or with the arrival of new writer Paul Levitz caused sales to drop by 30,000, and then the price (and page) increase in 1978 - from 30 to 60 cents, at the time of the DC Implosion - cost another 43,000 readers. Dropping the price back to 50 and then 40 cents gained back 20,000 of them.

In hindsight, it's explainable why sales dropped at first when the Legion spun off into their new book: Gerry Conway.

The increases in 1982 and 1983 where the Levitz/Giffen years. They picked up 50,000 new readers in those two years, only to shed some in 1984 due to (presumably) Giffen's new art style.

Starting in 1985, we have data on individual issues, but due to a crude way of estimating sales based on Capital Cities data through 1997, it's suspect. Unfortunately sales for all of v3 here can't be trusted due to that way of estimation - for example, the huge drop in 1987 doesn't exist when you look at the data, it's just that that was a transition point for determining a "fudge factor" for that year. All we can use are general trends, nothing specific. What we can conclude here is that sales went down from 1985 to late 1989 at the end of v3. What's significant in here is that this is where the direct market starts becoming more influential, and newsstands start to fade out. Perhaps that decline coincides with the drop in sales.

Then v4 comes along and overall, the trend continues in nearly a straight line from 1990-97. We see three bumps in the data: late 1991 was the Quiet Darkness story which also featured then-popular Lobo; another in mid 1993 which I can't figure out why (approximately issues 41-46) probably due to the introduction of the new Legionnaires series; and Zero Hour and the reboot in late 1994.

But the reboot only slowed down the rate of decline. The Legion title hit rock bottom in late 1999 just prior to Abnett and Lanning taking over.

Under Abnett and Lanning, sales rose steadily for the first time since the early 80s (not counting v3, which I can't tell what it did).

The new reboot, though declining, still has sales higher than at any point in at least a dozen years.

Here's the boring stuff on my methodology and data collection.

You old fogeys out there (myself included) will remember the annual Statement of Ownership that used to be in the back of some issue, which was required under postal laws and told (among other things) what the average annual circulation was. John Jackson Miller has the 1960s data on line at ComiChron (but note that DC didn't print the Statements for 1963 and 1964, that's why there's a blank there). Following Adventure Comics, the Legion went to Action Comics for about a year, then they became backups in the Superboy book in 1970. From there, Superboy became Superboy and the Legion which became Legion v2 in 1980. Unfortunately (for me), in 1984 as the Legion started its new volume 3 title, DC stopped publishing the Statement of Ownership in the direct-sales-only books, of which Legion v3 was one. Thanks to Tim Stroup and Tony Rose of the Grand Comics Database for looking up the rest of the data in Miller's "Standard Catalog of Comic Books" (which neither my library nor my local bookstores have).

Old-timers might also remember that prior to Diamond's monopoly, Capital Cities Distribution had a good chunk of the market. Capital published their sales data, but since they only had a fraction of the market, how do we scale their numbers to reflect total sales? The generally accepted way of doing this is to divide CC's sales figures by a fudge factor that represents what percentage of the marketplace as a whole they had that year, but nobody (except DC) has the actual numbers for each title. Unfortunately that skews the books with higher than average sales numbers downward, and the lower sellers up - which totally hoses the plot of the v3 sales, supposedly the second-highest seller for DC for at least some point in the 1980s (which I want to revisit later). Furthermore, the fudge factor is calculated over the entire year, not just for a month, which messes things up even more. This subset of data covers all of v3 and the first 7 years of the v4 title. Capital City was devoured by Diamond in late 1995/early 1996 as fallout of the speculation wars. Thanks to Tim and Tony for this data too.

After CapCities went away, Diamond has pretty much had the market to themselves, so that's their data starting around then. The Diamond data on this chart covers the last three years of v4, the Legion Lost/Legion Worlds/The Legion set, and the new v5 title. The Comics Buyer's Guide has the Diamond data from Sept. 1996 to present.

Inspired by this "Comics Should Be Good" post recently, here's an "intellectual exercise" for you. They call it the "Quick Brown Fox Challenge", named after the phrase "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" which contains all 26 letters of the alphabet (which is a "pangram").

My challenge: create a pangram using only Legion-related names of people. No places or objects. Code names are allowed as are "secret identity" names as long as you use the whole name (so "Reep" is not allowed, but "Reep Daggle" is). I suspect I'll be pretty lenient.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Just like last year, this isn't a delayed April Fool's joke, it's an open invitation. Several of us will be getting together in Las Vegas for our annual weekend. This year it's Thursday July 5 through Sunday July 8, 2007.

The legendary Legion of Super-Gamblers! Blackjack Boy! Pai-Gow Poker King! Roulette Lass! One-Armed Bandit Boy! King Queen! (Or Queen King under the influence of Grandian Gender-Reversal Germs.) And their headquarters, the Black Pyramid (with its bright LSG beacon on top, which can be seen thousands of miles out in space)! Bring out the Planetary Chance Machine, pay homage to the Luck Lords, and book that trip to the planet Ventura....

Actually, it's a bunch of comics fans who happen to have at least a passing knowledge of the Legion, and one weekend a year we travel from all over the country to Las Vegas. No hidden agendas, nothing you're required to do (except show up and have fun, either with us or on your own as much as you want). There's a core group of us that goes every year, usually around 8-10 of us, with a half dozen or so who have joined us at one time or another over the years. This will be our 11th annual trip - thus LSGXI - with participants from Houston, NYC, Phoenix, Kansas City, Seattle, Philadelphia, Long Beach, Mountain View, and more.

Note - Very few of us are actually Super-Gamblers, though from time to time we do come out ahead. It just sounded good. Not all of us can live like Bruce Wayne in the recent "Brave and Bold" issue with Green Lantern.

Typically we fly in on a Thursday afternoon and leave Sunday afternoon or evening, though due to work considerations some don't show up until Friday night and some stay over until Monday morning. This year it's the weekend of Thursday July 5 through Sunday July 8. We're trying to plan to see a show one night, have a fancy dinner one night, and casino hop the rest of the time, chasing our money up and down the Strip.

If anyone's interested in possibly going, or just want more information, send me an email (it's in my profile) or leave a comment. Here are some photos and trip reports from our early missions.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Oops, I almost forgot to post these. This month's quiz was questions related to current events such as 52, Countdown, WWIII, the Lightning Saga, and "the Levitz Legion". I'll try for another theme next time.

1. Which Legion villain(s) have had a distinct counterpart in the 20th/21st century? This excludes those where the 20th and 30th century versions are the same person (e.g., Luthor or Mordru), and don't count races like the Dominators.

My original answer was the new Persuader (who got whacked by Osiris during 52) and the Sun-Eater. You guys came up with Bizarro and the Servants of Darkness (can't believe I forgot them!), plus Mxyzptlk V (who killed everyone but they got better when he left). I left the Computer Tyrants of Colu off as they're close enough to a "race".

2. When C.O.M.P.U.T.O. was created in the 20th century, what pre-existing robotic components were used?

A Mother Box (from the New Gods) and a Responsometer (from the Metal Men).

3. What was Paul Levitz's first Legion-related writing credit?

He wrote the first issue of Karate Kid's solo comic, shortly before writing the Legion comic the first time. He did do some production/editorial stuff like in Amazing World of DC Comics but I was looking for a comic book story writing credit.

4. In the original JLA/JSA/LSH crossover, where were the demons defeated in the end? What other familiar 30th century location bore a striking resemblance to the location in the first part of the question?

The Demons Three were defeated by magically reassembling the JLA Satellite, which held residual magic from the Bell, the Jar, and the Wheel. They were trapped within the satellite, which looked almost exactly like Medicus One.

5. What war was Mike Essad associated with?

This Soljer (from Superboy 210) had died in World War VI (but he got temporarily better).

6. Which pre-existing 20th century DCU villain(s) did Karate Kid fight when he came to the 20th century in his own series?

The Lord of Time and Major Disaster. The "homegrown" villains included the Revenger, Master Hand, Commander Blud, Gyro-Master, and Pulsar. He did fight Nemesis Kid in his first issue, but of course he's from the 30th century.

7. Name the 15 members of the JLA, JSA, and LSH who met during their original team-up in JLA 147-148.

I'm glad you guys got this, otherwise I would have had to look it up.JLA: Batman, Black Canary, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, SupermanJSA: Dr. Fate, Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Power GirlAs for the Legion, I misremembered. Only four Legionnaires took part in the initial fight - Brainiac 5, Princess Projectra, Sun Boy, and Wildfire - but Lightning Lad, Chameleon Boy, Shadow Lass, Ultra Boy and Saturn Girl make cameo appearances at first and take active part later. Here's a scans_daily synopsis of the two issues (JLA #147-148).

8. They were never identified as such, but where did we see what was probably the Earth-3 Legion?

My intention was for this to be the team seen in Superboy #117, who met Superboy in "Smallvile" (not Smallville). See here for example. There was no evil Legion in Legion v2 #300 (only dead Legionnaires), but a couple of you mentioned that the Time Trapper grabbed some evil Legionnaires in a reboot anniversary issue. I have no recollection of this at all, so I assume you're right, but since Earth-3 was destroyed in the Crisis and the reboot is well after that, I'm not sure if I want to accept that one.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

In apparent confirmation of the TPB news from yesterday here, Dorian at Post-Modern Barney points out that at Canadian bookseller Indigo's website, they have listed a bunch of DC TPBs as shipping this year, many of which haven't even been announced yet. Among them:

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

From a poster on the ComicBloc message boards who attended the Bristol comic convention in England this past weekend (boldface added by me):

I attended the Bristol comics expo this weekend and upon spotting Bob Wayne I rushed over to ask him some burning questions. I asked Bob if there was a chance that any of the O'Neil/Cowen QUESTION sries would be collected, would Ostrander Suicide Squad be collected and would any more of the Levitz era legion would be collected. Bob was very kind and told me that I should be very happy towards the end of the year in realtion to the O'Neil/Cowen Question. He said that theres a very strong possibility of the Ostrander Suicide Squad but in a showcase format and he hinted that there will be futher trades of the levitz legion probably starting with when Giffen ame on-board.

I'd make that a six-issue TPB reprinting 284-289 (Nullport, Dr. Regulus, Queen Projectra), which would start with Levitz's first issue as writer, and you'd have three issues of Pat Broderick and three of Giffen. That would dovetail nicely with a reissue of the Great Darkness Saga (bring it back in print), which already reprints 290-294. A third volume might reprint 295-299 or 300. Then a fourth volume would bring us up to issue 306, which might be a good point to stop at since issue 307 was the first of Giffen's new art style (Omen & Prophet). Here's the GCD page with all of the v2 covers under discussion.

Ah, the joys of slackerdom and procrastination. Now I don't have to wade through 30+ posts to compile the JSA #5 review roundup, jamboree, and hootenanny. Instead I'll hit some highlights and add my own commentary from stuff which also includes the end of 52 and the start of Countdown.

Obviously, there was a huge outcry - "nerdgasm" was a popular word - when we saw the Legion statues in Superman's Fortress. Even I let out a little "squee". And yes, I saw the second Wildfire and wondered if the artist screwed up, until I found out a couple pages later. But looking at the statues.... that's not the "real" Legion of the v3-era, at least not all from the same time. That's Polar Boy's new costume along with Sensor Girl, both of whom showed up like that a year or so after the Crisis. And that was well beyond the Great Darkness Saga time frame. And what's Ferro Lad's statue doing there? I thought these were given to Superman by the individuals? Oh yeah, and by the way, somehow now on this post-IC New Earth, Superman was Superboy again (even if they can't say the name). I think my jaw hit the floor on that little revelation.

I love the smile Superman has on his face in the last panel.

Now how do we fit this Legion into continuity? It appears that the "Lightning Saga" Legion may be the Legion of this New Earth. We were led to believe that the current Waid/Kitson Legion was, but ever since that backup story that showed the citizen Legionnaires inspired by 20th century comic books, I had been doubting that. With the revelation of the new Multiverse, continuity is actually much easier:

The Lightning Saga Legion is the future of New Earth (mainstream DCU post-52). Is this the pre-Crisis Legion?

The post-Zero Hour Legion (last seen on Earth-247) is the future of the new Earth-1. This is where Barry Allen travelled to just before the original Crisis, and where Bart (Impulse/Kid Flash/Flash) Allen is from.

The post-Crisis and/or Glorithverse Legion is the future of the new Earth-2. I propose this because it's a world in which there never was a Superboy or Supergirl, but there was a Superman and a whole legacy of characters to take inspiration from.

The Waid/Kitson Legion is the future on another Earth in which the Silver Age of the old Earth-1 appears in comics. For the sake of argument, let's say it's on the new Earth-4 (home of the Charlton characters).

During the Starman series, Jack Knight travelled to the future of the new Earth-1 instead of his own. He met the post-ZH Star Boy, who later traveled via Time Bubble as an adult back in time to meet Jack before going off to his death.

The Star Boy of New Earth's future tried for whatever reason to go back in time but got stuck on Earth-22 (Kingdom Come) somehow. He eventually made it to his own past (the current JSA).

Who said the multiverse was confusing?

For another point of view, Duke Harrington at Shanghalla tries his own hand at mapping a Legion to the new multiversal Earths. And Andrew Hickey at DC Countdown has a great recap of the whole Multiverse controversy from around the comicsblogosphere and concludes that

The new multiverse seems to be an elegant compromise between these two factions - one linear 'real' universe where all the currently in-continuity stories happen, and 51 others, all clearly delimited, out of the way, and definitely not to be confused with the real New Earth.

IGN Comics: So when did you figure out that you wanted the Legion of Superheroes to come into play in this story?

Meltzer: That was early. To show you how far back it goes, if you look at the first image that we put out there of the Justice League, The Karate Kid is in there. I remember when I asked Ed [Benes] to put him in, I said, "Do I want to put this out there, or will they start guessing it too quickly?" I figured you'd have to be a really good guesser to get that one, so we put it out there.

This was over a year ago when I was still waiting for approval on the team, and we already knew it'd be cool to do it with the Legion. We really wanted to do an homage to Seven Soldiers for a new era. That to me is the ultimate JLA/JSA team-up, even better than issues #21 and #22. Geoff and I are both huge Legion fans, so this was our way in. Again, this is cliché in any comic book interview today, but you know the saying - if you get to play with the toys, you might as well play with the good ones.

IGN Comics: The Legion has undergone a ton of reboots and relaunches, more so than most properties. How did you and Geoff decide which version of the Legion to use?

Meltzer: Geoff and I just have a very similar eye for what we like in geekdom. I just can't say it better than that. We're similar in age, same generation, so we read and grew up on the same comics, and the same stories affected us in the same way. So when it came to which version of the Legion we were picking, it was literally like - this one? Yeah! That was it. We knew it in a heartbeat. I don't even know who said it, because we were so in sync.

I think people are going to be surprised next issue when they're able to see the new explanation of the Legion, and I think it'll all make more sense. I'm someone who doesn't like writing about the old stories. Everyone calls everything a retcon, and I don't even like the word because I think it acknowledges that you can just ignore things. As much change as I've been lucky enough to make on certain parts of the DCU that I've worked on, the one thing I've tried to do is pull in as many of those old stories as I can and bring them back into continuity, as opposed to just looking at them and saying "those are cute coloring books, but we don't need them anymore."

The first Crisis just destroyed the Legion and wreaked havoc on their history. The first Crisis gutted the Legion and mortally wounded the team. The damage inflicted by the first Crisis combined with the fan fiction stories of the TMK Legion directly led to the Legion having to be completely re-booted during Zero Hour.

It is an excellent idea by DC to re-introduce the Legion of Super Heroes into the new DCU’s time stream and history in the pages of the JLA and the JSA. This move firmly cements ties between the two premier super teams of the present day DCU. Also, by linking the Legion with the JLA and JSA it elevates the Legion as a team of the future on the same level of importance to the DCU as the JLA and JSA. Plus, this allows DC to introduce this new take on the Legion in the new DCU to a large number of readers who follow the popular JLA and JSA.

Oh yeah, by the way, Superman? He was a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes back when he was Superboy after all, just like before the first Crisis (which he refers to as “the first crisis”), a time period that was erased from his past and their present during the Crisis. So, did the “New Earth” rejiggering restore the pre-Crisis Legion/Superman continuity, thus negating the other Legion reboots (and/or the Superman reboot), restoring the 20-year-old, pre-Crisis continuity and complicting if not negating much of post-Crisis continuity? Aaaugghh!

This reveal by Superman about his (post Infinite Crisis) history with the team of future-based heroes was a true WTF moment for us. We haven’t regularly read any of the Superman titles for some time (for the record we left during the god-awful electric blue Superman disaster of the late-90s).

We particularly have not read the recent Superman stories by Geoff Johns and his mentor and Superman film director Richard Donner—but does this mean that DC has gone and (again) retro-conned Supes again? So the John Byrne Man of Steel re-boot and the 20 years of stories thereafter don’t count anymore or didn’t happen???

DC really does need to clarify its post-Infinite Crisis continuity but we digress.

For Brad Meltzer, super-heroes are his imaginary friends. He wants to hang out at their clubhouse, playing games. They can call him “Brad”, and he can call them “Bruce” and “Clark” and “Hal”. Grudgingly, he fits in a few shards of plot. But his heart’s not in it.

Geoff Johns is a different sort of fan. You can picture him holding a comic in one hand while frantically making notes with the other about the “facts” the issue contains. He seems determined that the school notebooks he filled with screeds of information about the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 1970s and 1980s should not go to waste. Now, it is in the nature of the DC Universe these days that writers have to make choices about which versions of past continuity to adhere to. But it is foolish to draw attention to this unavoidable weakness, and downright perverse to base your whole story on asserting your preferred version of continuity over all the others. Johns is interested in exerting control over an imagined world more than in telling stories that can stand up on their own.

It's not that continuity around the Legion wasn't already dicey, but having characters explicitly point this out in stories just underscores how mallable and uncertain continuity is for DC, post-Infinite Crisis; something that wouldn't be such a big deal if it wasn't for the fact that their comics consistently refer to themselves over and over again. The strangest thing is, they do it to themselves. There's no reason other than fanboyishness for the pre-Crisis Legion to be used here instead of the threeboot version of the characters, but in order to satisfy that fanboy neediness, the creators needlessly confuse everything.

Meanwhile, Dr. Doom's Mailbag tries to sort things out. Even the ruler of Latveria admits defeat - "Although Doom's brilliance knows no peer, even he must admit defeat in the face of current Legion continuity" - but he does a good job at it regardless.

The complicated and contradictory provenance of these different futures is enough to make even the most fervent Legion fan blanch. How idiotic and self-defeating it all seems. Contrast that with the numerous alternate and mutually-contradictory futures in my own universe - the distopian "Days of Future Past", Killraven's Martian besotted apocalypse, the Guardians of the Galaxy, even the alternate 2099 wherein a future doppelganger of myself conquers America. How simple to resolve such discrepancies - it is enough merely to say that they are alternate futures, which may or may not come to pass. Even after the futures have been prevented from occurring by contemporary events, they still exist in the infinite multiverse.

But DC has been obsessed with the internal consistency of their futurescapes for so long that such a natural solution seems beyond their capacity. Everything is so literal-minded, with every universe officially labeled, and every future depicted in its turn as the only possible future . . . an approach that has caused inestimable confusion among fans. Anyone who cares enough to follow the Legion's adventures in the first place will have an intimate investment in just how these adventures fit in the grand metatextual scheme. To push aside these considerations is to misunderstand the appeal of the concept, and to pretend that such considerations are of little importance is to undermine their appeal for the books' core constituency.

Don McPherson at Eye on Comics has annotated the issue. He notes that this has everyone except Chemical King, Tyroc, Tellus, and Quislet. Curious.

Final notes:First, a comment about Batman vs Karate Kid at Thought Holder:

The Karate Kid I am talking about belongs to a teen super group of the future inspired by Superman of the past (our present).

Batman would kick Ralph Machio's character in the MOVIE Karate Kid into the ground with severe quickness and alacrity. No contest.

THIS Karate Kid, from the future, really is a true friggin badass.

I'll close with this email from a fan that Brad Meltzer posted to his MySpace blog:

I had never been a big Legion of Superheroes fan as I had always seen their history as a tad complicated but since their involvement in this storyline I have borrowed a few of the DC archives of a friend, bought the Legion Showcase vol. 1 and the Great Darkness Saga and I can officially say that I am hooked. To me he legion is one of those books that was so ahead of its time, its unbelievable.

Monday, May 14, 2007

In part 2 of his 52 "exit interview", Mark Waid talked to CBR about lots of things, including the Legion. There's a lot more there than I discuss here, so it definitely merits a read.

RT: Let's talk about "Supergirl and the Legion of Superheroes." And, more specifically, why you left so suddenly.

MW: The honest answer is because Barry got his Marvel exclusive. I didn't want to stick around without Barry there. We'd planned to wrap up with issue #36 or so, and I'm disappointed that we couldn't follow up on the threads we wanted to follow up on, and I certainly don't begrudge Barry, who has my unwavering support no matter what he chooses to do. But I think we ended on a pretty good note.

RT: So what do you think about Tony Bedard as the replacement?

MW: Tony is a great replacement.

I think that issue #29, which Tony wrote and which just came out, was really good. I read that and wish I had written it. It was a really clever take on the Dominators and a really dramatic twist in the story.

I've liked Tony's work forever and think he's a really good choice for "Legion." I know that's the obvious thing for me to say - I mean what else am I going to say, "He's gonna suck!"? - but I genuinely mean it when I say I have faith in him, and history shows it's true. I brought Tony into Crossgen, something he has almost forgiven me for. [laughs] I keep dragging him along whenever I do stuff, because I want him to do more comics.

Ouch. So basically they compressed a storyline that had 9 issues to go (28-36) into 3 (28-30). Of course it felt rushed, and Mark was busy with 52 in that time anyway. Now they've got one regular-sized issue to clean up many (some?) of the dangling plot threads that they wanted to do in seven.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Now that WizKids have released the final image (Ultra Boy), I went back and updated the entry here to show all of the new figures.

The May issue of Game Trade Magazine (#87) has a preview of the Legion set in its final retail configuration.

I'm not sure what those things are on the top right or to Superman's left. M. J. Norton at Miraclo Miles isn't sure either, but he's got a scan of the article (which appears to be an ad, not an article) in which WizKids is trying to assuage HeroClix fans that this new set, which is the first with some new playing capabilities, won't make all their old figures obsolete. I'm sure Scipio at the Absorbascon could tell you more if you were so inclined.

Meanwhile, Darren at The Miserable Annals of the Earth reviews how they translated Ultra Boy's powers into HeroClix (apparently not all that well) and discusses Timber Wolf at length.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

This week's Countdown #50 has some of the "if you blinked, you missed it" fight between Batman and Karate Kid from the recent JLA/JSA teamup book. You can check out the first part of the issue at MySpace Comic Books, which appears to be run by CBR. While you're there, MySpace also has sites for DC Nation and plenty of other comics fans and creators. (Note: you may have to join to see the site, and you'll definitely have to join in order to become someone's "friend".)

I'm at The Omnicom but I pretty much don't use it for anything except checking in on other peoples' stuff.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Newsarama has a lengthy excerpt from TwoMorrows' "Back Issue" magazine #22, an interview with Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen discussing their work on the Legion title. The excerpt pretty much covers how they got to be working on the book.

LEVITZ: ...I was a real Legion fan as a kid, and [writer Jim] Shooter dropped it right at a point in time when I was starting to be allowed to write on a serious basis at DC. Whether I was ready to or not is arguable, but at least the tide had changed in that direction. There weren’t a lot of guys lined up wanting to do it, and I probably would have killed anyone of my sort of stature who tried because I wanted it that badly—and did it that badly.

SCHWEIER: Why do you say that nobody was really interested in doing it?

LEVITZ: Well, if you don’t love the Legion, it’s a pain in the ass.

GIFFEN: Yes, the amount of characters was so big that we’d always keep flow charts.

LEVITZ: Yeah, I mean, you’d literally have to write the book with a scorecard and notes, and that’s if you knew them and loved them. If you didn’t know them and love them, it was a lot of work.

GIFFEN: If you really didn’t care about these characters, it would be agony.

The magazine can be ordered through the TwoMorrows website if your local comic shop doesn't carry it.

The suckiest part of this is that you can get something like the JLU Season 2 DVD (which has the "Far From Home" episode, by the way) for $26.98 list price, and it has all 13 episodes in the set. If we get gouged on 3 volumes of 4-5 episodes each for all of season 1, that's $45 for 13 episodes.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Here's your monthly trivia. In this episode: questions related to current events such as 52, Countdown, WWIII, the Lightning Saga, and "the Levitz Legion".

1. Which Legion villain(s) have had a distinct counterpart in the 20th/21st century? This excludes those where the 20th and 30th century versions are the same person (e.g., Luthor or Mordru), and don't count races like the Dominators.

2. When C.O.M.P.U.T.O. was created in the 20th century, what pre-existing robotic components were used?

3. What was Paul Levitz's first Legion-related writing credit?

4. In the original JLA/JSA/LSH crossover, where were the demons defeated in the end? What other familiar 30th century location bore a striking resemblance to the location in the first part of the question?

5. What war was Mike Essad associated with?

6. Which pre-existing 20th century DCU villain(s) did Karate Kid fight when he came to the 20th century in his own series?

7. Name the 15 members of the JLA, JSA, and LSH who met during their original team-up in JLA 147-148.

8. They were never identified as such, but where did we see what was probably the Earth-3 Legion?

In good news, Warners has released the box art for Volume 1 of the LSH cartoon DVD. TV Shows on DVD has the artwork and text solicitation. The DVD comes out in August.

Kids WB! brings you a new series inspired by the DC Comics legend Superman. In LEGION OF SUPER HEROES, a team of superheroes from the 31st century head back in time to enlist Superman's help in battling their nemeses, the Fatal Five. But when they arrive in the Man of Steel's hometown, Smallville, they discover that they've miscalculated a bit. Instead of a powerful, confident Superman, they find the introverted, insecure young adult Clark Kent, whose abilities need fine-tuning. The legion itself is a group of well-meaning, undisciplined and unpredictable, super powered young adults who just happen to be the Universe's only hope. The Legionnaires are still light-years away from becoming the seasoned (and cynical) pros of the Justice League.

Meanwhile, character designer Derrick J. Wyatt mentioned on his blog today that he's moving from the Legion to another show for next season. You've seen his work on the background characters such as these guys:

Thursday, May 03, 2007

While I thought some of the subtext was a little heavy-handed - "The Sun-Eater was supposed to be the weapon that stopped war, everyone would be afraid to use it, it was only used twice in wartime and then it was too dangerous to have around" - but aside from that, what a great episode. Fun, action-oriented, even character-driven as Bouncing Boy learns to be a leader. Ferro Lad feels responsible, even though he was hardly the only one to fail. What will happen next week? We think we know, but are they going to play to our expectations or will something else happen (much as the post-Zero Hour Ferro didn't die against the Sun-Eater during "Final Night").

Best episode yet, and that's saying something (especially considering it didn't have an ending). The cast of the series seems to have been expanded in the last few episodes, and the tone has become more serious; both of those things contribute to the impression that this is an important episode.

...[I]t was nice to see more of the team included and especially so considering the teamwork and different power combinations used to varying effect.

Still, this episode was energetic and exciting, even if it was mostly set-up for the big season finale in the next episode. Here's hoping the Fatal Five (in more than just holographic form) and/or Alexis Luthor and/or Mekt are involved somehow.

Discussions over at ToonZone (whose general mood is "I still can't believe they cancelled Teen Titans for this") and ComicBloc (at J. Torres' forum there).

Hmmm, where are the other reviews? Did I miss them all? Or did everyone forget it was on?

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

David Lambert at TV Shows on DVD is reporting that the first Legion DVD and action figures based on the animated show will be coming out in August with a Happy Meal tie-in at McDonald's. The suggested retail price is $14.97, and it's supposed to be four episodes from the show. More at TV Shows on DVD.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

And also thanks to y'all, my regular traffic every day this week would have made my top 10 list just a few months ago. It took a year for the first 50K visitors, and I'll hit 100K in about 2 weeks, that's only six months for the second 50K.

You might not think there'd be enough to talk about in a blog that's dedicated to an obscure team 1000 years from now, but believe me there is. Between the comics, the animated show, the toys and games, and the people, it keeps me busy. (Hey, if anyone wants to pay me an obscene amount of money to keep doing it, my email address is available in my profile!).

Haven't had much time to work on this one this week, but I wanted to get it out before the next wave of books comes in. Ugh, and I've still got about 60 reviews to try to consolidate a post about the last two JLA/JSA issues!

Onward and upward, to Supergirl and the Legion #29. As I mentioned, this wasn't what was solicited. It was supposed to be a Waid/Kitson production, but it wasn't. Nobody has said anything about it officially - did Waid and Kitson leave the book earlier than expected, earlier than they said? I have no idea, but I'd be eager to learn what happened. Based on similar fill-ins in the past year, I'd suspect that it was because of 52.

This issue, as will be reflected in the comments below, seemed like a fill-in. Instead of the big issue leading to the conclusion of their 2-1/2 year saga, we come to a screeching halt in the action while we listen to a Dominator tell his side of the story. I'm not sure what to think of the Booster Gold/52 connection, I keep thinking either "Wow!" or "What!?" But it didn't seem like the payoff I was expecting, even if it was one of the first confirmations of the multiverse (other than Dan DiDio's stunning spoiler weeks ago - as Jim Doom put it, "DiDio’s completely unnecessary revelation ruined what should have been one of the most significant weeks in DC comics history since the multiverse was eliminated two decades ago.").

My first set of quotes is from Tony Bedard. Asked about it in his CBR forum, he said "As for issue 29, we pinch-hit for Waid and Kitson and ended up with an issue I'm very pleased with." In a later post, he writes:

Mark and I have a very comfortable collaborative relationship, so much so that I forgot who did what. I know I wrote that whole issue myself, but it is certainly informed by what Mark was doing and where his storyline was going. The whole idea was to insert an issue that kept the Dominator War storyline moving forward. Due to a variety of reasons, they needed help, and I was happy to provide it. So while it wasn't as clean-cut as Mark plotted and I scripted (in which case it would've been credited that way), Mark did suggest an issue from the Dominator viewpoint, and after checking out what he was doing, I incorporated a bunch of his ideas, so in a way Waid's all through that thing. Does that make sense?

Let's hear about what the rest of the comicsblogoverse had to say. I'm going to try to cover the issue itself as well as the Booster Gold crossover. Some highlights:

I'm starting to get the notion that the themes of this series are a) changing society and b) that the ends do not justify the means. ... The Legion wants to change society too. It's what they're all about. But the Legion is the one group that has scruples, the one group who won't kill to force change. They wouldn't even trash the Public Service when they had the chance! That's why they're superheroes and the rest aren't. If this is the key idea of the series, then by rights it ought to be the centre of next issue.

On Booster Gold:

Who else would screw up a centuries-old treaty between the two great powers of the galaxy? Typical Booster Gold. Win the battle, win the war, mess everything up anyway. And the reveal that he was involved was timed perfectly to fit into the rhythm of 52. It's extremely deft storytelling and it ties the Legion to the present-day DCU with yet another strand.

Wow. I can’t believe what a pedestrian read Supergirl and the Legion of Super Heroes #29 was. I found the truth behind the Dominator’s connection to the 52 to be a total joke. It was such a bad job that I busted out laughing. It was unintentionally funny. Kind of like a cheesy movie that takes itself seriously.

On Waid possibly leaving with this issue, he addresses the series as a whole:

Waid completely and totally failed to live up to the hype. Waid never seemed to take his job on the Legion seriously. During his entire run, he either gave half-hearted efforts on very pedestrian story arcs or he had to get guest writers to carry his load while he concentrated on other titles like 52. It is a real shame that Waid failed to live up to the high expectations. I truly expected more out of a big name talent like Waid.

On the one hand, the resolution of the whole "fifdee tuu" thing was a bit lame, and it made a guy we've really never seen before out to be the prime mover of the plot... a trick Waid already played with Mr. You-Can't-Remember-Me. On the other hand, unlike a lot of the "making it up as we're going along" lameness around 52, at least it feels like this was his plan all along. Sharpe's art is okay, but feels flat in a lot of places where it should pop. Mildly recommended.

Mark Waid’s run on this book was largely panned by LOSH loyalists, but I always enjoyed it. Even when I didn’t know what was going on or if the drama wasn’t quite hitting me how I thought it was supposed to, I liked the book because it felt so different from any other comic book I was reading. It also felt different than other Mark Waid books. And for a book set in such a different world, I really liked that. This issue, now written by Tony Bedard, just felt like any other comic book. I wish that I could put this in more tangible terms, but I can’t. The issue read faster, it seemed more shallow, and it just didn’t feel as unique.

On top of that, we finally get the explanation for the 52 references. Bravo to DC for managing to tie in 52 with their other books - even those set a thousand years in the future - and managing to time the release of this book with the shutdown of 52 - but that was the tie-in? The Dominators misunderstood Booster Gold’s utterance when he popped in and out of their timeline thousands of years ago? On top of being let down, I felt downright insulted as a reader. That might work as a plot setup for an episode of Perfect Strangers, but as the reason for an intergalactic war that cost the lives of billions (if not more)? What a crock.

...[T]his is the first issue of Legion of Super-Heroes that I've read in two years that I consider to be completely skippable, and that includes the entire twelve-volume set of Archives.

I'm not even saying it's Bedard's fault; from all appearances it looks like he was handed the bum job of scripting the issue that "explains" everything--including the relatively limited and generally pretty pointless return of the multiverse--and ties into 52, and to his credit, he handles it better than most. The problem, I think, is that I just re-read the shockingly underrated INVASION! mini-series a couple of months ago where the same themes with the Dominators were done in the mildly magnificent Mantlo manner, and when coupled with the fact that this issue ends with virtually the same shot as the last, it all feels warmed-over and repetitive. Here's hoping this won't be the issue that sets the tone for the rest of Bedard's run.

...[I]t kind of gives away a reveal for 52 #52 tomorrow (Only kind of, however; this week's 52 also gives the same thing away, when Morrow says "52 worlds... 52 Morrows...And it all comes down to me..." Legion is just more explicit about it, is all) and reveals that this entire plot that's been running in one form or another for the last year is the result of a 52 plot that we still haven't had explained to us properly yet. Fine, congratulations to the creators for tying the book into current DC continuity, but why did you tie a book set 1000 years in the future to current DC continuity especially when current DC continuity seems to want to deal with a 30-year-old version of your characters?

(I know the answer, and so do you: Sales. But still. It's incredibly frustrating to see this book that has the perfect excuse to be complete in and of itself suddenly become another chapter in the ongoing saga of continuity porn.)

...So it's not exactly filler, but it's not entirely essential either; it just feels like an afterthought, a tired attempt to get an issue out and make it barely worthwhile... which, considering that Waid and Kitson had managed to make the book feel like it was regaining momentum and building to a big finish, is somehow all the more offensive in its weakness. Crap, sadly, and unless next issue is somehow jawdroppingly wonderful, enough to pretty much kill interest in the storyline completely dead.

Depressing, ain't it?

Interestingly, FilmFodder had a completely different reaction to the issue:

Mark Waid appears to have taken a powder and handed this book over to writer Tony Bedard (also responsible for this month’s JLA: Classified). Immediately, the book has a new level of energy that Waid (God bless the man) could never really summon for his pet project.

Perhaps because Waid tried so very hard not to write the Legion reboot as a copy-of-a-copy of previous Legion volumes, he never felt comfortable enough simply putting forth the Legion the way it was meant to be. Bedard immediately brings back those 30th/31st century colloquialisms, and inserts a heck of a subplot featuring a one-man conspiracy within the Dominator hierarchy.